At Study Hut, we believe that developing a strong mathematical prowess begins in middle school math, which is why we strive to provide junior high students with a strong foundation in Algebra and Geometry. Since opening in 2006, we have helped hundreds of middle school students find success in the complex and intricate subject of mathematics. Study Hut regularly tutors students from the surrounding middle schools every week, and math is often the first priority and focus of the sessions. With one-on-one tutoring, students who come to any of our Study Hut locations find a friendly, focused environment where they are free to ask questions and complete their work. The Study Hut approach to tutoring middle school math involves breaking down the material into its simplest parts and then constructing the larger concepts using those “building blocks”. Before a student even starts their homework or test review, we believe he/she must first firmly grasp the reasoning behind the new material. Through the application of logic and “common sense”, we encourage the student to begin thinking proactively, and the results are always positive. In fact, it’s not unusual to see a student’s math grade increase by one letter grade in just one month at Study Hut.

At Study Hut, we pride ourselves in our unparalleled service to both the students we tutor and the parents of those students, and it’s part of the reason we received the South Bay Small Business of the Year Award in 2016. Our work is tailored specifically to the student, focusing on exact areas of their individual struggles. We take pride in our middle school student’s achievements. We all know very well how challenging middle school can be, socially and academically. We help students with the transition of middle school classes by being there for them, especially in the mathematics department.

If you need help with organization, creating and following a subject specific study plan, and overall learning how to be an effective student on test day, then maybe a 1-on-1 Study Skills Workshop is right for you. Sometimes, the hardest part of school is the balancing act of it all. Middle schoolers have the bar set higher than ever before, with teachers’ expectations beginning to climb as the students prepare for high school. High schoolers face even more responsibilities, scrambling to juggle multiple AP classes with extracurriculars and applying to colleges all at once. Therefore, while students can have great academic potential, if they are unable to plan out their time properly or have poor study habits, they may fall short of their academic goals.

If you are looking for help with getting organized and improving your study habits, look no further than the Study Hut’s 1-on-1 Study Skills workshop. These workshops are one-on-one sessions with one of our 1-on-1 Study Skills Workshop tutors who have been trained to help students reach their full academic potential. We teach students how to properly schedule out their time and approach their studying so that they can stay on top of balancing everything at once without feeling overwhelmed.

The key to good study habits begins with good organizational skills, so we help students clean up their overflowing backpacks and put everything in its place. Next, we focus on study skills specific to each student, finding areas where their note taking isn’t efficient or their flashcards aren’t doing the trick. We then work to improve these strategies, providing options so that the students can find what works best for them and get the most out of their studying.

Regardless of grade level, every student has had to deal with the stresses that come with being in upwards of seven classes at once. Study Hut’s Study Skills tutoring can help students manage their packed schedules and find ways to improve their study habits so that their academic performance can reflect their true potential.

What is the ISEE?
ISEE stands for Independent School Entrance Examination. It is a test that is a helpful tool in assessing schools: how do their students usually fare on the ISEE? This helps measure the caliber of the school. It is also a test that schools use to assess students’ readiness, in consideration for admission. There are three levels of the ISEE: Lower level, for entrance in grades 5–6; Middle level, for entrance in grades 7–8; Upper level, for entrance in grades 9–12.

What is on the ISEE?
All levels consist of five sections: Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Mathematics Achievement, and a 30-minute essay.

Why take the ISEE?
Magnet, independent, and private schools often require the ISEE in consideration for admission.
When is the best time to take the ISEE?
Students can take the ISEE up to three times in 12 months, and you can review the results before sharing them with your school! For more information (https://www.erblearn.org/parents/admissions-testing-isee).

How can you prepare for the ISEE?
First, you should come to Study Hut for a FREE, full-length practice test. Then, our friendly, well-informed managers will breakdown the results for you, helping you and your student target areas for improvement.

Study Hut provides structured, test-based tutoring for the ISEE. The student will be matched with a test prep pro, who will serve as their tutor throughout the preparation process. This will provide consistency, accountability, and a level of comfort and trust for the student that will allow them to thrive!

Summer is a perfect time to prep for the ISEE!
Call (310-546-2408) or email (kristen@studyhut.com) today to schedule your free, full-length practice test and consultation!

We have been there. You know your student is bright, and you know they’re trying their best, but that just doesn’t translate when you or their teachers read their work. You can tell they have the right idea, but that idea is hidden behind incorrect spelling, poor grammar, and sentence structure that even you know is wrong. Whether they need help outlining an essay, drafting a presentation or just editing their final project paper, a Manhattan Beach English tutor at Study Hut is here for them.

A Study Hut English tutor is itching to help out your student. Having been through countless writing blocks of college-level research papers, essays, and even dreaded poetic prose projects ourselves, we understand what your child is going through. The process is sometimes overwhelming. Sometimes you think, “Well, I’m good at math, so I’m just not going to get English.” Not true. They don’t have to win the Pulitzer Prize to be considered a good writer! Each Manhattan Beach English Tutor at Study Hut believes every student can get to a point in their writing skills where they feel comfortable with any English work they produce.

In the classroom, memorization is king. Writing itself is a very singular process, and when they are assigned a take-home essay suddenly they are on their own to apply what they learned in school. Having a one-on-one English tutor will make writing assignments less daunting. They now have someone to bounce their ideas off of, and share their drafts with no judgment. We want to help build a solid foundation of writing skills for your student to be able to write well in any situation.

We will sit down with your student and do a quick diagnostic of what they need. Once we know where the problem is, we go to work! A session in action looks like two peers discussing ideas, rephrasing, questioning to get to a deeper analysis—it’s honestly quite fun.

The Manhattan Beach Middle School Scholar Quiz 2016 will be held on the last two weeks of May. This is a Jeopardy style event that will have several hundred students entering. These students will compete in teams with several different types of questions on several subjects.

Teams

Gameplay

The Manhattan Beach Middle School Scholar Quiz 2016 will be held during the lunch period in several classrooms.

Questions for the competition are taken from the areas of:

Math and Science

Literature and Grammar

Social Studies and Geography

the Arts, Sports, and Popular Culture.

Here is a breakdown of how a round of competition goes:

It is divided into two parts by a 1-2 minute half-time.

There are 3 Types of Questions

1)Toss-Up Questions:

Both teams have 5 seconds, after the reading of the Toss-Up question to answer. For Math questions, 10 seconds are given. With Toss-Up questions, if the first team to answer does so incorrectly, the second team is given an opportunity to answer immediately. The question is not re-read for the second team, nor is an additional 5 seconds given to answer.

2) Four-Part Bonus Questions:

ONLY the team which correctly answered the preceding Toss-Up question may answer this question. Teams have 20 seconds to confer before the Team Captain must immediately provide all four answers.

3)Lightning-Round Questions:

Both teams have 1–2 seconds to answer these 10 rapidly-delivered, theme-related questions. With Lightning Round questions ONLY, if the first team to answer does so incorrectly, 5 points are deducted from that team’s score AND the second team is NOT given an opportunity to answer.

Answering

Players will signal they are ready to answer Toss-Up and Lightning Round questions by raising their flags.

The first person to raise his/her flag receives the first opportunity to answer.

If a flag is raised and a team is called upon to answer BEFORE the reading of a question is complete:

the question will not be finished being read and the team must answer immediately.

If the answer is incorrect, the reading of the Toss-Up question will be completed for the second team.

Scoring

Toss-Up Questions: 5 points each.

Bonus Questions: divided into 4 parts, each worth 5 points, for a maximum of 20 points.

GETTING INVOLVED:

The Manhattan Beach Middle School Scholar Quiz has volunteer opportunities for people trying to get involved. If you would like to learn more or volunteer The Study Hut can help refer you to the people in charge of the event. There are positions for things such as: reader, flag judge, and scorekeeper.

After a fantastic 2014-2015 school year in Manhattan Beach, Mira Costa students are about to enjoy some fun in the sun. While many have finished their SAT and ACT exams, others are starting summer school. So for those of you who have to spend some morning time in the classroom, Study Hut Tutoring is here for you after class, at our new summer location: 1208 Artesia Blvd. in Hermosa Beach, across the street from Mira Costa High School.

Our geometry tutors are standing by– we are available for hourly sessions Monday through Friday from 9am to 7pm. Whether you are getting ahead and taking Modern World History or US history, we have the local experts and books you need in order to earn A’s over summer. It is important to get off on the right foot because the summer classes are especially condensed, often only 4-6 weeks long. If it’s algebra tutoring you need, our top people are locked and loaded, ready to go.

Mira Costa High School isn’t the only school letting loose. Students from Manhattan Beach Middle School are “free at last” from the rigors of Mr. Rucker’s Boulder, Mrs. Luke’s math homework and early morning tutoring sessions on Late Start Wednesdays. Now that school is out, a lot of students are coming to Study Hut Tutoring for summer tutoring in Manhattan Beach to brush up on their pre-algebra skills, five paragraph essay writing, and Spanish verbs. These basics are quintessential to earning top marks in the fall. While buoy swims are equally as important for the body, the mind requires specific tuning in order to test well in early September.

For those students who have just wrapped up their last days at Grandview Elementary, Pacific Elementary, Robinson Elementary, and Pennykamp Elementary, there is a real transition that lies ahead as they enter into Manhattan Beach Middle School. Now more than ever, incoming 6th graders will be put to the test. But not to worry, Study Hut Tutoring is in your corner, having just helped a plethora of students with wide ranging needs, we are ready to help you tackle these challenges: we have the books, we know the curriculum, and you’re going to have a ton of fun knockin’ it out with us. Come in for engaging summer tutoring in Manhattan Beach to keep your mind fresh!

Cooper started coming a few weeks ago to work on his general study skills. He did well in class last semester, but his grades were beginning to slip this semester due to a lack of interest and effort. He worked on study skills and social studies with his tutor Sara.

Sara worked with Cooper on pre- and post-reading strategies to help his retention. A big factor in helping him remember key terms was folding his paper in half at the beginning of his lesson. He wrote key terms on the left side and then their definitions and any other relevant information on the right side. He could easily hide either side and quiz himself on the topics. After this, he would put the large concepts within the section into a concept map. Sara would have him explain to her why each bubble was connected and how they related. At the end of a chapter, Sara would also have him summarize and compare the different time periods so he would not get similar periods confused. He would also go over what the key accomplishments in each time period were, why they were important, and how they came about.

After working together for two weeks, Cooper told Sara that he had gotten a one hundred percent on his most recent quiz! He thought the quiz was only going to cover the most recent lesson, but it was actually on the entire time period. All the ways he had been studying with Sara helped him remember all the important information that he needed to succeed!

Many students come in to Study Hut for regular, weekly appointments. Some students come one day, others two days, and a few students come five days a week! Seeing a tutor regularly is one of the best ways to keep on top of and stay ahead in challenging courses. Students can work on one subject or multiple subjects with their tutors. Every session can be tailored to meet individual student needs. Having these regular appointments with the same tutors helps students stay organized with their classes, even when they have many of other extracurricular activities outside of school.

One Study Hut regular, Grace, comes in for tutoring twice a week with her tutor Charlsey. They work on all of Grace’s classes, but mostly focus on math, science, and history. Grace brought her grade up in math, and now understands the concepts. Her teacher was not explaining the material very thoroughly, so she worked with Charlsey on each of her homework problems to make sure she was getting them right. Grace also gets a lot of homework for her history class. After she finishes her math, she studies for her tests and works on her homework. Grace and Charlsey go over key terms and work on concept maps. Concept maps help students remember the material by linking key terms to other events that they are learning about. This helps them remember the information in context and strengthens their knowledge on the subject. For the first time since starting middle school, Grace received all A’s on her progress report!

Kyle comes in to Study Hut for tutoring with his tutor Richard every week. They work on English and math. In math, Kyle was having a lot of trouble with graphing. Kyle and Richard would go through the homework together and make sure that Kyle understood how to get the right answer. They went over homework every week to make sure that Kyle knew exactly what was going on in class. Kyle went into his final confident that he would ace it. He got a one hundred percent and had the highest score in his entire grade!

Richard and Kyle also work on English together. Vocabulary was challenging for Kyle. Richard taught him ways to remember the words, like using the word in context to fully understand the definition, and how not to mix up similar looking words on the test. Richard and Kyle have also been working on improving Kyle’s essay skills. Going from ideas to a strong, well-thought-out paper was incredibly difficult. Richard helped Kyle work on his entire essay writing process. They started with brainstorming. A lot of students skip this step and just jump right into writing their essay, but this leads to them missing out on potentially better topics. Structure was another important factor they worked on. Kyle had great ideas, but was not conveying his message as clearly as he could have in his paper. Thanks to Richard, Kyle got a one hundred percent on his English final and received the second highest grade in his class!

Grace started coming to Study Hut because she was struggling in her math class. The way her teacher taught the was confusing, and she did not help the class try and keep up. There was very little time to learn all the new concepts that were being taught before the test. The homework did not help either because the instructions were vague and there were very few problems covering each topic that had been covered in class.

Grace began coming to Study Hut twice a week to work on math close to the end of the semester. She worked with her tutors Jason and Charlsey on the homework that had been assigned that night as well as the classwork she did not understand. Her tutors made sure to go through each California Common Core Standard with her. On the math learning targets that she did not do well on, the tutors made sure to review and teach her the topic. Then they did numerous practice problems together, until Grace felt comfortable doing the work on her own on higher level of difficulty problems.

She was worried because she thought that she would not have enough time to bring her grade up before the end of the semester. She made sure to bring in her study guide each week that she had a big test. With all of her hard work, Grace was able to raise her low D all the way to a B before the end of her semester!